South Australia (SA)

Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing

The Office of Recreation, Sport and Racing, opens in a new tab is the lead agency for the South Australian Government's policy on sport and active recreation. The Office manages grant funding and provides a range of initiatives to increase opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in sport.

South Australian Sports Institute (SASI)

Para Unit, opens in a new tab. Launched in December 2024, the SASI Para Unit presents an exciting opportunity for participants to engage with Para-sport experts, classification specialists and SASI Para-athletes and coaches. The unit’s aim is to create additional opportunities for people with a disability to be discovered, and to provide world-class services which supports athletes on their pathway from identification through to the Paralympics. Click through below to learn more about Paralympic sports.

Active Inclusion

How inclusive are SA sport clubs? A study into the attitudes and behaviours of members from South Australian mainstream sporting clubs, opens in a new tab, Katrina Ranford, Inclusive Sport SA, (June 2019). In 2018 Inclusive Sport SA was successful in securing a two-year Information Linkages and Capacity Building Project funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency, with the agenda to increase capability of the sector and grow active participation of people with disability (PWD) in mainstream sporting clubs and associations. A pillar of this project saw the consultation with Sport bodies and their members to understand the current landscape with regard to inclusive practices and in particular including people with disability in mainstream sporting clubs. Some key findings include:

• While most sporting clubs have a good level of facilities for those with physical disabilities, less than 30 percent of local clubs are involved with “inclusion” related activities such as Inclusion Come N Try events or teams for PWD.
• Almost 60 percent of participants believe their club would have no idea where to start actively engaging PWD into their teams and club roles, with 88 percent wanting additional training for coaches and volunteers.
• It is clear that clubs do not know how to cater for PWD, 86 percent of respondents would see value in their club and SSO’s arranging more training for coaches and volunteers around inclusion.
• While three quarters of respondents support the participation of PWD in their sports’ competition, when asked if including a PWD in a game would negatively affect the quality of a club game, an alarming 43 percent noted that it would in some regard. This suggests that inclusion in principal is highly regarded and communicated, however when ‘inclusion’ joins ‘your’ team it becomes a different story all together.
• If we want inclusion in sport and society to grow a three-point journey to success is recommended. This includes spending time looking at education and training for deliverers of sport and recreation; for the sector to take accountability of delivering an inclusive environment; and an increase in visibility of people with a disability fulfilling roles in our mainstream clubs. Only then will we shift the perception of PWD participating in mainstream club land from inspirational or odd to everyday, ordinary sporting life.